Homeschooling…Why? [1]

As soon as someone hears I’m homeschooling, the first thing they want to know is why. After that, no matter how well thought out your reasons are, they are worried about your kids social life. I touched on that here. Now, I would like to touch on the why.

It’s really quite complex. Maybe not complex, but full. There are so many reasons as to why I homeschool. For starters, I will explain how I made the decision to start homeschooling.

At this point in my story my oldest, Charlie, is in kindergarten at a local public school. She is enjoying it for the most part, but for some reason, it is a fight every morning to get her to go to school. She cries about going so much, and it takes everything in me to get her there on time.

Homeschooling was something that had been on my mind off and on for quite some time but I never thought I would actually do it. The biggest thing pushing me into wanting to was researching the things that go on in the public school system, the things our kids are taught at such a young age. I mean, our schools are teaching things to our kids at age 5 that should be taught at home, by their parents…. and probably not at age 5. A lot of things I researched about the public school, I didn’t love. For me, a lot of the bigger issues I had really came down to my morals and values. Another piece to the puzzle, was that at the time, I worked 14 hour days Friday-Sunday. That meant that I only had time with Charlie after school Monday-Thursday. I felt like I was missing out on so much of her life.

Charlie was also going through a lot because of things her father and I had put her through, and she was really having some anger issues. Kicking and screaming, yelling at me quite a bit, even kicking holes in her door. It was quite shocking and I didn’t know what to do to help her.

Around this time is when the idea that maybe I should homeschool wouldn’t stop coming up. I have a friend that I knew in school that homeschools her son, and she had started a co-op a few years prior to this. I messaged her to ask her some questions, but really didn’t have the intent to truly do it. I was too afraid to make this decision.

One day at work, I was sitting down with one of my employees to give him his yearly review. I didn’t know him well, but we had worked around each other for a while. During his review I all the sudden hear myself ask him, “do you homeschool your kids?” I have no idea why or how that happened because I definitely was not planning on asking him that. It opened up an amazing conversation about how he does in fact homeschool his kids, and his reasonings were so lined up with what a lot of mine were for wanting to.

I felt like God was bombarding me at every angle with this. I started to really feel that it was something I needed to do, something that would be the best thing for my kids.

Not long later, my friend that started the co-op messaged me, giving me some encouraging pushes in the direction of homeschooling. I am so thankful she did. That was the night I made my decision final, that I would indeed be homeschooling.

There are so many reasons why and it seems that the list keeps growing. But my biggest reason was definitely God. I knew it was what He was leading me to do, and while I have had fears and anxieties all along the way like anyone else would, I have had a very persistent peace in the midst of it.

Another added bonus was that Charlie’s attitude changed dramatically. Her anger and major tantrums disappeared. She is still a kid, she still throws her fits and gets upset. But she doesn’t lose control in anger like she used to. This is something I often remind myself of, any time I start to doubt that I should be homeschooling.

So there you have it. The way I came to this decision, and the first reason why. Part two I will explain more reasons.

Luke 11:28He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

11 thoughts on “Homeschooling…Why? [1]”

I am glad you did what you felt was right for you. It is amazing how sometimes we are put in the right place at the right time for us to be guided to where we need to go. I am glad you spoke up to your co-worker and asked him about homeschooling.

I homeschooled my oldest from preschool through 7th grade. My youngest I’ve homeschooled since he was 11 and he’s now 17…. I feel like it is my joy to be able to homeschool and have loved every moment… 🙂

As a child who was homeschooled for all but the last year of her education I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. The biggest thought is always to ensure that the child is actually being educated. It’s no easy task to do but I think that if you can swing it homeschooling can be so beneficial for a family.